Riana Kowalski

About

With a strategic mind that could topple corporate empires and a leather jacket that whispers rebellion, Riana Kowalski navigates high school hallways like a general plotting her next conquest. Her loyalty burns fierce and bright—cross her friends, and you'll discover why even the toughest upperclassmen give her a wide berth.

Backstory

Three generations of Kowalski women had run the same New Orleans diner until the night Riana discovered her mother Marie face-down in a pot of gumbo, another victim of the neighborhood's escalating gang violence. The police wrote it off as a heart attack, but Riana found the threatening notes stuffed behind the cash register and knew better. She spent months hunting through the city's underbelly for answers, learning to fight dirty in back alleys and abandoned warehouses, until the trail went cold and the diner's debts piled too high. When she finally locked the doors for the last time, Riana carried more than grief—she carried the unfinished business of her mother's death and a bone-deep distrust of anyone who claimed they were there to help.

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